Both my bartending friends and the media tell me that Gen Z is drinking much less than previous generations did. Gen Z’s teetotaling ways may even have a long-term impact on the alcoholic beverages and bar industries. We shall see.
Not so with my generation, Generation X. My generational cohorts were drinkers from the get-go. Now, in their late 50s and early 60s, they haven’t stopped. Ours is the generation keeping bars and distilleries alive.
But not all of us Gen Xers are drinkers. I underwent an early period of experimentation with alcohol, and quickly determined that drinking was not for me.
As a result, I did much more drinking when I was underage than I ever did as a legal adult. In fact, I did most of my drinking during my eighth-grade year. How did I acquire alcohol at the age of 13? You’ve heard those stories about unsupervised Gen X kids in the ’80s, right? Well there’s definitely an element of truth to them.
As an adult I have consumed almost no alcoholic beverages. If you could assemble all the beer, booze, and liquor I’ve consumed since age 21, it would definitely fit on a single tabletop.
The last time I consumed an alcoholic beverage was in Detroit in September 2002. I was in the Motor City for an automotive industry show. My colleagues and I were waiting for a table at a crowded restaurant. The logistics of the situation required us to wait in the bar area.
While I don’t care for alcoholic beverages, I’m not an ideological teetotaler either. I decided to take advantage of the situation to have a rare tipple. Since this was a rare occasion I decided to get something off the beaten path.
I purchased and drank a dark Guinness.
I found the taste of Guinness to be not horrible, but definitely not something I would go out of my way to drink.
And I definitely did a more manly job of finishing off my Guinness than did Mark Zuckerberg. The Meta CEO and founder was recently filmed drinking a glass of the stuff with an unmistakable grimace. Zuckerberg, born in 1984, is neither a Gen Xer nor a Gen Z, so we can only wonder if he’s a habitual drinker otherwise.
-ET